Chương 112: S.05 Time to Fly 07(04)

Scene 06_02. Hee-jin: Without the Original Relic, you cannot return to your true form. With the Black Wire alone, you will never be able to fully recover yourself. Nodding as if it were nothing, Ji-young lightly raised the corner of her mouth and smiled. After Hee-jin's answer, Ji-young listlessly studied herself in detail beyond the vanity. Ji-young: Ha. How does the Strategist keep skin that pale without even taking care of it??

Briefly weighing the great drop in Ji-young's tone, Hee-jin let out a small breath and sent her voice as lightly, with no more weight than Ji-young's. Hee-jin: I take a great deal of care. I do a face mask every single night before bed. And, with respect, I don't think that's something for the Oldest to be saying. The Oldest and Si-yeon are the palest among — Ji-young: Si-yeon and I are as good as dead already, so the least we can have is pale skin. The Strategist just sleeps, is what.

As if you ever did any of that. Hee-jin: I really do take care, you know? You've seen my roo — Ji-young: Ah. Right. Those things you've got, half of what I have. I saw them well. Sure. Hee-jin: Ahem ahem. After Hee-jin's cough, a heavy silence settled again. Hee-jin could not quite bring herself to leave her seat. With such a Hee-jin beside her, Ji-young straightened her waist slightly, lifted her gaze from the vanity, and looked at Hee-jin with composure.

Ji-young: Anyway, we've talked about it like it's nothing, but — the goodbyes, are you sure you don't need to say them? There can't be much time left. Hee-jin: The Oldest. I am to become the thorn that targets them all. With what face could I offer them a farewell? Ji-young: Because I will never surrender any of their lives into the Strategist's hands. Hee-jin paused her words for a moment and turned Ji-young's meaning over. Hee-jin: Instead, for the time that remains, I'll do my utmost.

Ji-young: If even that much will keep you from regret, then well.... Hee-jin: If I said farewell, I think I'd regret it instead. That farewell would turn into lingering attachment and take the place of the utmost I've resolved upon. A farewell would summon guilt. Ji-young: So even the Strategist has her fears. Hee-jin: Of course. That's why I've walked this path so carefully. That's why I came to lament to the Oldest, who is younger than I am.

If you scoff at how unreliable I look, there's nothing to be done about it. Hee-jin turned her head and looked around the main hall beyond the great 창호지(Changhoji_Traditional paper-paneled door) set in the room. In keeping with Ji-young, who ran hot, every window in the room was always thrown wide open. It was the deep night of early spring. A cool wind blew in from beyond the door. Hee-jin: This is a place where I spent thirty-four years.

There was horrific extortion, violation, and violence, but the life the Oldest saved, the purpose the Former The Oldest saved and embraced in me, and I-seon, Jeong-in, Yeon-hui and Yeon-su all, even Doe Yu-seok — they believed in me and followed me. It's a place that held all those people and memories. Into that place, I will drive my thorn. If one who heads toward a place to be hated does not fear the pointing fingers of a cherished past, then that one is not human. And yet.

Hee-jin briefly held her own deep, calm yet impassioned meaning. Every thought rushed in like a flashing lantern of memories. Ji-young did not press her. Hee-jin: Soon, I will follow a path on which I must abandon being human. To trample the four butterflies, I will scatter every thorn linked to my flower. That is the only way to repay the price of the life I owe. Ji-young smiled calmly and nodded.

Turning her body, which had only been sending its gaze, as if to set herself right, she faced head-on the Hee-jin who had given her level resolve. Ji-young: What you've held you must do, what you resolved you must do, what you believe you will do — see it through to the very end, without regret. I, at the least, I alone, will let myself be trampled by you as much as you wish. It was Ji-young's composed consent. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Ji-young: This is the command of Kang Ji-young, the 56th Oldest, to her Strategist, Song Hee-jin. It was Ji-young's composed, heart-deep consent. Ji-young: Never, to anyone, surrender your place; and let no wavering find harbor in you, either. Hee-jin smiled without a word. It was the will of Kang Ji-young, the 56th Oldest, that she had longed to hear. Ji-young handed Hee-jin the instruction and command that strayed not in the slightest from what Hee-jin had hoped for.

Having heard all the meaning she'd come to hear, Hee-jin did not mean to linger any longer. Just as she was, in comfortable clothes, Hee-jin rose from her seat. The unprepared attire didn't even cross her mind. Rising from the cushion, Hee-jin offered a deep ceremonial bow. Ji-young too, just as she was in comfortable clothes, received Hee-jin's deep bow seated. Having finished the bow, Hee-jin stood straight and sent a calm voice to Ji-young.

Hee-jin: After coordinating with the Guide, I'll inform you as soon as it's decided. At Hee-jin's pledge, Ji-young smiled and nodded. Unburdened, Hee-jin left only a light courtesy with Ji-young and stepped away. Ji-young watched the trace of Hee-jin for a moment after she passed through the door. Scene 07. It was deep night, yet before the two 자격루(Jagyeongnu_The Water Clock), two 본청(Bon-cheong_Headquarters) staff belonging to the 지원관(Jiwon-Gwan_Directorate of Support) were always stationed.

As the black water bubbled and seethed as if boiling, it turned the original time back. It was a noise that felt all the louder in the silence of deep night. An officer who had watched it fall still in an instant raised her voice. As the Directorate of Support officer spoke while watching the Water Clock, the other remaining officer took the record down onto a scroll with a practiced hand. Support Officer_03: The time rolled back is twenty-two minutes.... The Incantation used — Black Sand.

Huh, but, it's a little different. It's not the shadow of White Sand...? Was there ever such a thing to begin with?? Scene 08. As if it had never burned at all, Yeon-jin's office showed not the faintest trace of scorching. On the long sofa set at the center of the office, Yeon-jin lay fast asleep, dead to the world. Yu-seok stood with his foot pressed down on the throat of the collapsed Seong-hyeon. Seong-hyeon clutched at Yu-seok's ankle with an indignant face, but there was nothing she could do.

Seong-hyeon had not yet told Yeon-jin that she was a person of the 본청(Bon-cheong_Headquarters). Yu-seok, who could hardly fail to know that fact, knew that Seong-hyeon would be unable to say a word to Yeon-jin. Pressing a finger to his own lips as if to seal them, he calmly urged Seong-hyeon to keep quiet. At Yu-seok's composed urging, laced with a sneer, Seong-hyeon bit down hard on her lip. Yu-seok slowly lifted his foot and released Seong-hyeon's throat.

Seeing in Seong-hyeon's manner that she would do nothing more than radiate hostility, Yu-seok left without a word. Through the door he'd opened on his way out, nasal moans steeped in debauchery drifted in from every direction. The unseemly noise was severed again by the swiftly closing door. Scene 09_01. Deep in the night, So-hui and Si-yeon, who had done the grocery shopping while they were out, sat with a drink spread laid out.

While Jeong-seon and Lee Yeon sat peeling fruit in easy chatter, Si-yeon pulled out the 담금주(Dam-geum-ju_Infused fruit liquor) she'd put in the refrigerator and turned to the company gathered around the living room. Plopping her trudging steps down hard, Si-yeon worked the lid of the infused liquor open with effort and stole a whiff of the scent wafting up from inside. Si-yeon: Hey, the scent's seriously damn good. Jeong-seon: You know that's the liquor my mom loved most? So-hui: That's precious, then.

Is it okay to just bring it out like this? Lee Yeon: There's an entire liquor storehouse set apart. Far larger than the Sealed Sanctum of the Black Doctrine. The infused liquor brewed over the past four hundred-some years sits there, sorted by period. That liquor in your hand — there's still plenty more, enough to overflow the storehouse. Jeong-seon: And the liquor we'll drink, I'll brew it myself. Fresh. For now, drink that. You sises, too.

Jeong-seon's voice was as bright and spirited as ever, no different from usual. Not even the deep sorrow held within it could be felt. She'd only buried it deep so as not to forget, the look of someone who had now accepted the path she had to walk anew. So-hui: That's a relief. Yoon Jeong-seon. At So-hui's reassurance, it was Lee Yeon who answered in Jeong-seon's stead. Lee Yeon: If anything, it's we who are grateful. Jeong-seon: Right.

Otherwise I'd have been bawling inside the main hall the whole time they were building. Coming out and getting smacked around by the sises and the teacher snapped me right out of it. Si-yeon, as if a single glass were more needed than any long talk, wordlessly tipped the bottle and filled Lee Yeon's glass first. When Lee Yeon moved to read Jeong-seon's expression, Si-yeon twitched her lips and her brow and shook her head at Lee Yeon.

Lee Yeon, looking a bit awkward, carefully held out the empty glass cradled in both hands. Si-yeon poured the clear pink liquor into the glass, a touch larger than a soju cup. Next she filled So-hui's empty glass. And after filling Jeong-seon's, she passed her bottle to Jeong-seon and held out her own empty glass to her. It wasn't an occasion for a toast. Since it was a quiet little gathering, everyone, without carrying on with words, leaned their glasses against one another in silence.

The clear ring of glasses followed. Having tossed back the sweet liquor in an instant, everyone widened their eyes, startled by the flavor that rushed over them. Lee Yeon: Wow, how old is this liquor? Jeong-seon: I grabbed the one from the 120-year section. Si-yeon: I've never had liquor like this before. So-hui: It's seriously damn good. What do we do? Honestly, this — Yeon-hui sis would absolutely love it. Jeong-seon: Why Yeon-hui sis?

So-hui: Ah, after Yeon-hui sis drank your pear-blossom liquor, she went and brewed liquor with my mom to try and copy it. Picking pear blossoms and all. Yeon-hui sis is secretly a total lush. Holds her liquor crazy well. Si-yeon: She just kept drinking without her face changing color at all. She's probably the biggest drinker of the four of us. Jeong-seon: And here she looks like some maiden from a noble household. After hearing Jeong-seon's teasing, Si-yeon suddenly stared hard at So-hui. So-hui: What is it.

Why are you looking at me like that? Si-yeon: Then again, now that I hear it, you are a bit different now. So-hui: Different how, now. Jeong-seon: Same for me. It's true Ji-young sis and Si-yeon sis look exactly alike, sure? But now they're clearly different. Yeon-hui sis and So-hui sis too. So-hui: Hey, so what am I then, a noble household's servant?? Si-yeon: SSibal, there she goes with the Jiral again. Lee Yeon quickly took up the bottle and filled the glasses in the order Si-yeon had.

At the elder's composed mediation over the glasses, So-hui and Si-yeon pursed their lips and laughed faintly. So-hui: You heard the construction's all done, right? Jeong-seon: Yeah, I got word from the Second Steward. She told me to come up tomorrow, in fact. Tomorrow's the weekend, right? Si-yeon: That's why we set up a little drink spread. Here, Everyone, having refilled their glasses, lightly met them again and tossed the liquor down their throats in an instant.

The pink infused liquor that had filled the large glass bottle gradually dwindled. The longer the cozy talk went on, the lower the pink infused liquor sank. Before long, in place of the liquor, what showed beyond the bottle was Jeong-seon sprawled out in a relaxed posture, Lee Yeon watching her, and Si-yeon snoring with So-hui fiddling with her nose to disrupt the snore in mischief. Lee Yeon: Guide. She called So-hui quietly, in case Jeong-seon should wake.

Even as Si-yeon flapped her hand as though swatting a fly, So-hui, who had been doggedly tormenting the sleeping Si-yeon all the while, turned her gaze with a smile at Lee Yeon's voice. At Lee Yeon's signal asking for a moment of her time, So-hui rose from her seat and headed outside. Since the weather was still rather chilly for her, So-hui put on the coat she'd flung onto the living room floor and stepped out the front entrance with Lee Yeon.

It was I-sim's detached annex in Jungang-do, set on a hill well removed from any residential area, with not a single proper house nearby. The streetlights of the distant highway looked like a single dot. The soft footsteps of the two pushed back the deep silence for a moment. The cheeks of the two as they walked flushed red with drink, but their gaits didn't waver. The calm steps of the two carried on a brief silence, but the mouth Lee Yeon had called So-hui out with seemed unable to part easily.

Just as So-hui slightly read Lee Yeon's expression, Lee Yeon halted her steps and sent a small voice to So-hui.